The 2020 Appropriation Bill on Tuesday scaled second reading on the floor of the Senate.
Consequently, upper chamber adjourned its plenary until 29th November to enable government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) defend their budget proposals before the Committees of the Senate.
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, in his concluding remarks during the debate on the proposed budget estimates, identified revenue generation as a major challenge of the budget.
Lawan expressed his concern over the successful implementation of the budget, saying that proactive measures are necessary to be taken to address the very grave revenue challenges that may mar the implementation.
He explained: “We are seriously challenged in the area of generating revenues, and it appears that until something drastic is done, this shortage of revenue will continue to militate against the implementation of the budget.
“We have to continuously engage the revenue generating agencies and schedule quarterly evaluation to be handled by our relevant committee, particularly the Senate Committee on Finance.”
“We need to look at how we can enhance the capital allocation. The shortage of funds will militate against that.
“We have serious challenge when only thirty per cent is devoted to capital budget; but that is an improvement from what we inherited from 2014 when the allocation was fifteen per cent. But that is not to say we cannot do better”, the lawmaker added.
On recurrent expenditure, Lawan, who noted that currently there were over 600 agencies whose workers’ salaries would have to be paid, mulled the idea of streamlining the agencies without laying off workers.
He said: “But we must establish the functionality and usefulness of these agencies. We also need to look at the direction of Public Private Partnership, especially in the laying of physical infrastructure. We can concession our roads, instead of taking money from China.”
Lawan, while advocating for a knowledge-based economy, appealed to the Federal Government to create an environment that would create jobs for the youths.
Speaking on attracting investments, he said: “We cannot realistically attract even domestic investments in any sector without security; not to mention direct foreign investments into our country. The funds may not be enough, but when properly applied we can achieve positive results.
“Our soldiers and other personnel of security agencies who are exposed to dangers need to be properly remunerated. Their allowances must be given to them at the right time, because these are incentives that we owe them”, the lawmaker added.
The Senate President also warned some agencies such as the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to submit their respective budgets to National Assembly or risk zero-budget allocation for the year 2020.
He warned: “The NDDC’s 2019 and 2020 budgets have not been brought here. The warning to NDDC is if they don’t bring the Commission’s 2020 budget proposal in time, there won’t be money to spend anymore, because government funds cannot be spent without appropriation.
“Appropriation is the responsibility of the National Assembly, and we are not going to allow our responsibility slip through our fingers.
“The same thing goes for the Nigerian Communications Commission, Federal Capital Territory Administration and any other agency that has not sent its budget. The budget that we undertake at this time will be holistic”, Lawan maintained.
